


Out In The Unknown

by WendigoStudios66



Category: Original Work
Genre: Action/Adventure, Ancient Egypt, Animals, Desert, Muslim Character, Original Fiction, Original Mythology, Other, Religion, Talking Animals
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-22
Updated: 2021-01-09
Packaged: 2021-03-03 03:53:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 20,441
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24328330
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WendigoStudios66/pseuds/WendigoStudios66
Summary: Out in the desert, a white tiger wanders alone as she tries to find help in order to stop an evil cult called the Outback cult. When she escapes from her place of exile, she finds herself in a Muslim village who seem to know about the hidden treasure from thousands of years when the first king and queens rose to power.





	1. Exile

The sun barely poked its way from around the horizon, it was only 8:00 o’clock in the morning but it looked more like it was still evening. A light wind blew through the sands, though it wasn’t strong enough to pick up the sand and blow it away from the ground.   
It was one of the calmest days the desert lands had seen in awhile, but since there weren’t that many Camans living in the open, there wasn’t anybody around to witness it.   
However standing on top of a large sand dune was a young white cat wearing a dark cloak, she raised her head toward the dark sky, the little light fell onto her face revealing her blue eyes and black stripes. She watched the almost nonexistent moon slowly fade from the sky, it would be morning soon, the white tiger sighed before she turned away and walked down the dune.  
The walk took several minutes, although to her it took hours. Sand was kicked up whenever the tiger lifted her, some particles stuck to her fur. The light breeze lifted the ends of her cloak, blowing the fabric for a few seconds. The cloaked white cat didn’t speak or react to anything, her gaze remained straight ahead at the land before her.   
Finally she reached her destination, her home was a small sandy hill with a few dead bushes scattered here and there, in the middle was a big rock that was just a plain grey color, behind the rock itself was a giant satellite that loomed it’s huge shadow over her home. The metal satellite was about eleven feet tall in height and looked like it hadn’t been used in months or even years since it was coated in sand from the desert’s sandstorms and was turned off but despite that, it was still in good condition if you really looked closely. In front and far from the big rock was a small cave, it was empty and it served as the tiger’s only protection from the blazing sun when it was daybreak or daytime and whatever else lived in this desert.  
The female tiger slowly walked up to the rock and collapsed onto the ground, panting furiously as her nerves started to feel hot, sweat rolled down her brow despite the light wind that blew not feeling hot. But she was tired from the walk and the painful hunger in her stomach from not enough food, it had been a long time since she had a decent meal or luxury at that.   
Though in all honesty she didn’t remember when she had a luxray meal heck even a decent one, the desert wasn’t known for beautiful lands or luxurious vegetation for the exiled, instead this place was known for its harsh temperatures and dry, sandy lands home to few creatures like the olgoi-khorkhoi or rather Mongolian death worm as it was called by the people of the desert the ones who survived anyway. These two reasons were why she had been tossed here, a desert was a perfect place for her to perish as it was nothing but a barren area of landscape where little precipitation occurs and, consequently, living conditions are hostile for plant and animal life.  
She sighed again before she attempted to get back on her paws, the hood fell backwards revealing more of her face. She gazed down at the rock, particularly throwing her entire body on it and looking down at a small fire pit that burned out since it hadn’t been used very much due to the lack of wood and food. “Figures,” the tiger thought to herself miserly. “There’s barely any wood to keep the fire going.”  
The sun slowly started to rise, bringing more light to the darkened land, the ill tiger gazed at the rising sun but winced as the bright light hurt her eyes since she was much use to the darkness, the sight of the sun mentally told her that Sunlight, the Queen of the Sun, was still doing her duty in the world of Nibiru.  
She gazed for a few seconds before she walked toward the cave, in the entrance of the cave was a small bag full of items that she had been allowed to take with her when she was exiled: a single pack of food that was slowly emptying, a half-filled vase of water and a small journal that contained a pencil. Reaching into the bag, the white female tiger grabbed the journal, pulled it out and opened it to the page she marked, the one she left off on.  
Inside were entries that the big white cat had made along with a few handwritten maps of different areas, but that wasn’t what she was looking for. After a few more flips, she uncovered a blank page, she took the pencil and started writing. 

‘From the diary of Maria Daw,’

Entry number….I don’t even know anymore. First things first, I searched the desert for a nearby town or really anyone who can help, but nothing, just miles and miles of sand. There’s no food and water either here which sucks because I’m running out of food and water, my paws are killing me from the endless walking and my body isn’t doing so good: I have a huge headache and a cold that’s slowly dying.  
It’s been so long since I’ve been out here, I don’t even know what day it is. Right now, it’s currently 8:20 meaning the desert is cool right now, at 9:00, the sun will fully rise and it will be hotter than the fricking Hades himself, ruler of the underworld.  
Goddamn fools in the outback cult! They were damned the day they threw me out here, the day I discovered that they were up to something awful! Perhaps maybe I should start at the beginning, but not necessarily the whole beginning. Just the fateful day I was exiled.

Flashback  
A dungeon cell was exactly how Maria had expected it to be: dark, dirty, cold and lacked any kind of light. The white tiger was sitting on a lumpy, torn bed and was chained up tightly: her front and back paws, neck and waist were put in shackles, they looked old and rusty from years or months of use. “What a lovely idea to keep me comfortable while I’m waiting for my Creator-awful sentence,” Maria whispered sarcastically, rolling her eyes.  
She didn’t bother moving, there wasn’t anything for her to do in her final hours or was minutes? She didn’t even know anymore. Maria silently glanced at the only light on the floor that was coming from the only window in the cell which was barred up, the only light she was able to see for now, her eyes turned away as the light was hurting her eyes since she wasn’t used to the sun. The entrance to the dungeon suddenly banged open and a sound of heavy pawsteps echoed down the stairs, Maria’s ears jerked up at the sudden shock.  
She turned her head to find a figure who was walking toward her cell, a lioness twirling a ring of keys on her finger, Maria paid little attention to what the lioness was doing so she was startled when she was roughly grabbed and forced to stand, the guard behind her attached her chains to a belt to ensure she wouldn’t escape. Another guard cat, this time a leopard, walked down the stairs and joined the other two.  
The two guards ushered their former teammate now turned prisoner up the dungeon steps, both of them carried spears on their belts to prevent escape or use for defence, not that any of that mattered, she was too weak to be considered a threat. The sound of footsteps echoed throughout the hallway of the Outback cult. The hallway was huge, covered in tapestries which depicted a large lion with a dark mane and fiery eyes, the walls underneath the tapestries were a golden-yellow like that of the sun the cult admired with each passing day.  
Maria lifted her head, gazing at a tapestry that was unlike the rest, this one depicted what looked like a tower with a beam of light shooting out of the top, in the middle of the tower was a glowing white crystal. Maria took a long mental note of it before she was shoved forward by the cat guard. “Move it!” she shouted at the white tiger, shoving her hard to make her go forward.  
Finally the three came across a set of double doors that were made out of the finest wood money could buy and painted gold, it was so well-made that the doors themselves looked like they were made of gold which was exactly how the leader of the Outback cult liked it. At the top of the left door, there was a sign that said: “Outback Courthouse.” ‘Well this is it,’ Maria thought to herself bitterly, shaking her head as anger boiled up in her chest.   
The doors opened, revealing the entire courtroom, there was a judge sitting right at the huge desk and there was the jury which was composed of many animals, most of them were from the outback. Plenty of them glared at Maria with hatred that burned through her soul, some of them however had a look of pity on their faces. Maria paid no attention to the nosy crowd, she knew they wanted to see her go down for her ‘crimes’ and she was admittedly eager to prove them wrong.  
The guards brought her to a desk and chained her to it, then they stood on both sides to prevent her escape. A kangaroo wearing a judge’s robe entered the room, taking his place at the high desk, his eyes fell upon the prisoner and the two guards. “Please rise for Judge Joseph,” a red kangaroo said, the crowd rose as the roo put on his glasses. The red roo hopped over to the side of the large desk and handed it to the judge. “Case 37, Maria Daw vs the folks of the Outback cult.” Joseph took the paper and set it on the desk, Maria said nothing, she didn’t even look at the crowd but she knew everyone was quiet as the voices died down the second the judge spoke.  
“Send up the first witness,” Joseph commanded, a German Shepherd dog stood up from the jury and slowly made his way to the front, not even making eye contact with Maria. Maria didn’t speak, there was nothing she could say or anything left to say anyway, she knew deep down there wasn’t anything he could do either, he was too afraid of turning against her former boss, Sir Amory Aaron, the powerful lion ruler of this cult.  
“State your name.” The German pooch lifted his head and began stuttering, the boy always had a habit of stuttering when he’s really nervous though Maria couldn’t blame him knowing what he was about to do. “Aaron Starburst,” Aaron stated though he had a hard time containing his nervousness. “Swearing on the Diamond of Life, do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth?” Aaron swallowed harshly but nodded. “Yes I do.” Maria breathed heavily through her nose, her ears lowered a bit, as her eyes looked around she swore she saw...him, Sir Amory Aaron, who was grinning evilly at her, his smile just said: “You’re in deep trouble for betraying me Maria.” The white tiger growled in anger.  
“How long have you known the prisoner?” the judge asked in his professional judge’s voice that made him almost sound like one of those judges on court tv or something. “A long time, probably about fourteen years to be exact, the details are a little hazy.” Joseph gave a knowing nod while he shot a glare toward the white tiger in chains. “Alright, when did you find out about the defendant plotting an act of treason against our leader, Sir Amory.” Aaron stuttered again, he started sweating nervously as he stared at Maria out of the corner of his eye. “Well, it started last week…” with that answer, the trial had begun.  
The rest of the trial went exactly as she had expected, it was what Sir Amory, his trusted comrades and maybe even Joseph the judge had planned, the so-called witnesses or maybe they were witnesses, Maria didn’t know, the details were rather hazy, stood up and recounted details she already knew to the judge and Amory. With each lie told, Amory’s evil grin grew wider, eviller and crueller. Maria snorted angrily, she didn’t exactly need the asshole’s grin to let her know her situation was completely hopeless. After all, he was the messiah according to the rest of the cult, that sorry excuse of a sir lion was considered a God above everyone else was worshipped by everyone minus her and a few people here, meaning he had everyone wrapped around his paw.   
Finally she was called up though she didn’t pay too much attention as she zoned out into her mind. Maria, now, was standing in front of Judge Joseph who was joined by Sir Amory, his cold stare almost cutting through her soul like a sharp blade. “This is your final chance to speak before I hand you your sentence, speak now or don’t.” Sir Amory grinned once again. “Go ahead Maria,” he said evilly. “Tell us your final statement and don’t try to lie, you know as well as I do, that it won’t work.” Maria growled in anger at the cult leader’s words but she took his advice anyway as she had no real choice in the matter, she took a deep breath and blinked a couple times for no real reason. “Members of this cult,” she began strongly, addressing everyone in the room. “I stand before you as a former member and now a prisoner, however despite the lies you have been told: I have done no crime, I have done no sin but even then, I will not deny what I did.”  
Amory’s jaw dropped down on the desk in surprise before picking it back with his paws, he shook his head in order to make sure he had heard that correctly. “Well, that was unexpected,” the lion muttered, which was true, he expected Maria to try to tell everyone in his cult about the cassandra truth despite his previous advice. “What a crazy change of events.”  
“The only thing I have to say is, despite what has happened, don’t think too low of me if I ever die, despite what’ve you have done, I forgive you.” Surprised gasps came out the maws of everyone in the jury including the judge and Sir Amory who had to pick his jaw off the ground a second time from the shock. “Finally, Sir Amory, I have something personal to tell you.” The lion watched in shocked confusion as Maria paused to collect her words, already things were getting weird, what else could the white tiger want to say to him?  
Maria took another deep breath and raised her head up high, she smirked and spoke. “F**k you,” she said simply, the venom dripping from her voice as a satisfied smile crossed her lips, getting an epic ‘oooohhhh’ from the entire courtroom, Amory’s jaw dropped a third time but this time he slapped himself in the face to snap himself out of his trance. “SILENCE!!!” screamed the crime lord in anger, the judge’s gavel slammed down on the desk so hard that it made a good bulk of the jury jump in fright.  
“That is enough out of your mouth! For your crimes of treason, you are hereby sentenced to exile! Thrown out into the harshest desert lands anyone has ever seen to rot! You will be faced with death should you ever put one foot on our lands! GUARDS TAKE HER AWAY!!” Without a word, the two guards grabbed Maria and began escorting her away, Maria didn't resist, she just smirked as she was taken away. That was a huge mistake on Amory’s part, if there was anything she learned from stories of animals who were casted into the wilds, they always found a way to escape their banishment and make a new life somewhere else or they found to stop the villain. Maria was going to do exactly what these heroes did, she was going to find a way to stop the Outback cult and save the day, no matter how long it may take.  
The entire crowd stared at Maria as the Outback’s newest criminal was forced out of their cult and toward whatever terrible destination that awaited her.

End of flashback  
The book fell right from the white tiger’s paws, hitting the sand below. Maria kicked the cave’s wall, yelping in pain when she did, she was starting to get tired of this daily hopeless route, walking around the desert and finding nothing that could possibly help end this bad story but this was the movies or written stories, this was real life meaning things take time and energy to get through it as that was how Life, the life goddess, or the goddess of Fate and Creation itself, had created it which was something Maria now hated.  
The white tiger fell to the ground, punching the sands in fury and desperation. “I can’t stay here any longer,” she thought bitterly. “I have to find help somehow and put an end to this madness!”

Later that night  
The desert was calm that night, the winds had died down and the sands had cooled down quite a bit. Out on the cooled sands, there were some night creatures who rose from the sands in order to hunt prey. But far from them was the familiar white tiger, Maria laid curled up in her cave, hiding underneath her cloak and a blanket, she was now dead asleep. Two mice sniffed the ground, their little heads searched around the cave, trying to find food to eat. Maria’s ears twitched and she lifted her head, she noticed the two mice and her stomach growled however the mice didn’t hear it.  
Slowly the white tiger got up from her place and crushed them both with little effort then brought the meat close and devoured it in one go. Once she finished, she settled against the cave wall and shut her eyes. “I really hope tomorrow will be different.”


	2. Solution?

The Next Day, The Desert, 8:00am

The next day saw no improvement for the exiled white tiger, in fact the morning went on like the many previous mornings, just wandering aimlessly in the desert and finding nothing. Maria stumped in front of the giant rock in defeat, breathing heavily through her nose, sweat rolled her head, she looked up toward the rising sun, the light just barely lighting her face, despair started to hit her like a freight train as she felt hopeless. The Outback Cult had most likely taken their first steps in finding what they or in this case, Sir Amory, seek and at this point Maria now knew she couldn’t solve this problem on her own but finding help from any outside force was hard as the desert was so remote.  
The white tiger stood up from the rock and started pacing in front of the satellite, the contents of her bag moved in rhythm to her steps. The sand got kicked up everytime she walked, Maria kept her eyes on the ground, trying to think of something else other than the sand on her paws or rather a plan. However nothing came to her head other than her exile, unwanted flashbacks came rushing back like a waterfall: the angry crowd booing, the judge’s stone cold face, Sir Amory’s smug grin and the guilty looks on her friends…  
Maria kicked at a sand hill with her right front paw, bringing up a small dust cloud which floated down the larger hill to join their dirt family. Maria sat right on the hot ground, threw off her cloak and pulled out her journal once again. “Entry number... I have searched the desert again, but like many times before, I didn’t find anyone who could help me, ugh. Wendigo dammit! I can’t believe this is how I’m going to end, I can’t believe Amory had managed to knock me down! I can’t beli…”  
In blind anger that only got worse considering her situation, Maria threw her journal, it hit the ground with such force that a bigger sand cloud poofed up. The white tiger then started kicking the sand, the force of her kicks were strong enough to send a single rock buried in the sand flying, Maria panted and gasped as she kicked as the desert didn’t have good oxygen. Maria growled, she glared at the ground intensely, imagining that instead of kicking sand, she was kicking the ever living hell out of a certain evil dark-haired lion, she could still see his smug grin reflected in the sand, the white tiger growled again and continued to blindly kick the sands.  
“AAAHH!!” Maria screamed, tucked in her right leg and gave one good kick, knocking not just sand but some kind of object out of the sand and onto the ground, Maria halted herself. “Huh?” she asked herself, glancing down at the object, she walked over to the abandoned object and picked it up. “Hey, is this…?” Maria looked the thing over before gasping in surprise, it was an instruction manual for the satellite, the broken one that stood before her in this desert. “I can’t believe I found this!” Maria exclaimed in excitement, opening the booklet and studying it for the instructions.  
Inside the manual were the instructions for building, repairing and powering up the satellite, there were also instructions for casting out a signal, these were for the unlucky travellers who would get lost in the desert lands. “This looks like the instructions for running the tower and casting signals, but what is it doing out in a desert like this? And better question, wasn’t this tower shut down since nobody comes out to these lands?” Maria stopped reading and glanced up at the satellite, the metal creation was still and strangely foreboding in the early sunlight.  
The white tiger paused and stroked her chin. “Unless…” A lightbulb went off in her head, she now knew what she was going to do. Maria reached and grabbed her journal, it was coated in sand and had created a dent in the desert but she couldn’t find her pencil. Luckily for her, she had plenty of pencils for this occupation, so Maria reached back into the bag and grabbed another pencil and picked up on where she left off.

‘Entry…  
Sorry about that sudden cutoff, but I think I found the answer to this problem. I was just wandering in the desert once again when I kicked up an instruction manual for the satellite tower in the desert. For those who don’t know, this tower was used as a way to send signals toward rescue teams in order to locate lost travellers in any parts of the world. I know what you’re thinking, this may seem like a crazy idea but if I can get the satellite on and running again then maybe I can cast out a signal and get some help!

Once Maria had finished the entry, she had a hopeful smile on her face like all her troubles were going to end soon enough. But however, her smile faded once she looked back up at the satellite once again, it’s very presence scared her and she didn’t fully know why yet. “That is if I don’t die trying.” Maria stood up and studied it very carefully, the satellite was made out of metal, an element that always was stronger then stone, but even so, it still came with weaknesses and disadvantages of it. There was the fact that metal buildings did cost a lot of money in order to build such things using metal. Corrosion was also a big hindrance for metal, especially if you didn’t take very good care of it. One last problem for metal was fire, metal barely was able to put up a fight against fire compared to rock as metal melts under fire, although sometimes metal won’t melt just enough heat can make metal hot enough to burn your skin which is dangerous, Maria, unfortunately, learned that the hard way and she didn’t want to do it again.  
However, the white tiger didn’t have any other ideas left, well she probably did, but they were most likely not going to be any use to her. “Alright satellite,” Maria said angrily to the looming satellite, voice filled with anger and determination. “Do your worst.”

*Clang!*  
“Crap!” Claws scraped the metal bars of the satellite, the white tiger hanging on to the bars swung and wobbled cursed under her breath as she finally found her footing, this was the second time she almost fell, but she was thankful for the thick metal and her leftover strength. Maria growled, her cloak flew around in the now strong as Snowy winds, but she refused to give up. Maria gave one good thrust of her body, managing to pull herself onto the bar as if she was a fully strong big cat climbing a tree for their prey.  
Looking out toward the desert, Maria saw nothing but sand out there which wasn’t surprising given how the desert was created when looking up Nibiru history about how the deserts were created in the history books. “No time for sightseeing,” Maria scolded herself. “You have to focus on your mission.” Tearing her gaze off the land of sand, Maria looked around the old alert tower, hoping to find something that brings power. The metal parts of the satellite were nearly so narrow that it made walking difficult, Maria gulped as she looked downwards, trying to not look at the ground itself below but at the bar itself.  
Maria felt her entire body shake, her legs wobbled violently and her ears pulled back. She had always been afraid of heights despite her being a member of the cat family. It happened when she was a lot younger, she was just going to catch a bird when the branch snapped under her weight and she tumbled to the ground, breaking her right paw. But that was all in the past, this was the present and this wasn’t trying to catch a bird, Maria was in a dire situation and if she wanted to get out of a dire situation, she had to do whatever was necessary to succeed in any kind mission no matter what.  
Maria shook her head to brush off her scared little kit thoughts, they were not as important as repairing the satellite in order to send a signal to the outskirts of the desert. The white tiger took a deep breath to calm her nerves, as she did, she looked upwards to see what needed fixing, there was a large hole in the center which was surrounded by three transparent crystals that weren’t glowing with magic like the satellites usually do, hanging from the hole was tubes that were used for absorbing magic to bring power but no bigger crystal.  
“Well, that’s just great,” Maria angrily muttered to herself. “The front power crystal is missing, now I can’t work the satellite.” The white tiger cursed under her breath as she couldn’t believe this was happening, all that effort getting up here and it was all for nothing! Maria slammed her left paw on the metal bars which did nothing but send an echoing sound throughout the desert.  
Maria angrily turned her head away from the satellite as she tried to calm her angry mind but she still couldn’t believe she had found a light in a dark and grim situation and it was torn away from her just like that or was it? Out of the corner of her eye, a tiny spark flashed, Maria’s ears twitched and she turned her head to find the outline of a large crystal hanging from the tubes, the necessary item for the mission. The crystal was so clear and was quite faded that it almost blended into the desert’s surroundings.  
Maria sighed and put a paw to her face, she couldn’t believe that she almost allowed such a critical detail to go under her radar though it was mostly because the large crystal as well as the three smaller crystals surrounding it were transparent and hard to see as this was expected of the special crystals that were native to the world of Nibiru mostly the Arawak mountains in the Arawak forest, though these crystals were good at storing and creating magic, they did have the problem of being hard to see in the bright light of the sun.  
Maria sighed once again and pulled her paw from her face, she couldn’t believe she missed an important detail that was right in front of her face, but she brushed off that little screw up, after all, she had to fix that crystal and the only way to do that was to slide the crystal into the hole but she had to get a platform or a lift. Maria looked up and around until she found a small hook on the top bar above her for lifting her up, the white tiger searched for a rope but she found none, Maria looked down at her cloak and shrugged.  
The white tiger grabbed ahold of her cloak and ripped it off with little effort, she then looped the fabric around the hook as she pulled herself up into the air then she tied a knot at the bottom to ensure she didn’t fall. Now with her makeshift rope, Maria sat down on the cloak and focused her full attention on the large clear crystal hanging from the wires.  
With little to no effort, she grabbed it and lifted it toward the large hole in the satellite, she stood on her hind legs to get a little height, her cloak wobbled beneath her paws as the white tiger wobbled back and forth. Maria turned her attention away from the crystal to stare downwards at the desert ground, her vision began to blur as fear began to take heavy hold of her.  
As if her luck wasn’t bad enough, a tearing sound caught Maria’s attention, turning her head away from the desert and toward her cloak, Maria noticed the cloak was tearing at the end and from the looks of things, it was tore already since it was old. In a few minutes, the fabric would tear and she would fall into the sand below. “Curses, this old piece of junk is falling apart.” Maria cursed to herself, realizing that she was in a lot of trouble in a few minutes or less as the fabric was meeting its end. “I should’ve known old fabric like this wasn’t great for this job!” At this rate, with the cloak tearing, Maria needed to hurry up and put the crystal into the hole.  
So wasting zero time, Maria stretched her body out almost to an impossible length and placed the thing into the large hole , she then twisted to the left, tightening the large crystal into the hole, with her weakened muscles, the task was made even harder but Maria never believe in the word ‘impossible’, the white tiger was someone who would keep going despite the odds against her.  
Though the cloak was tearing beneath her paws, Maria refused to lose focus, her eyes started to blur as sweat started rolling down her face, her ears twitched as the ripping sound continued. Finally in less than a fraction of a second, the old fabric tore causing Maria to fall but she only fell for two seconds as the large crystal and her reflexes saved her as the crystal was deep enough in the hole. The white tiger grunted as her sharp claws scratched the crystal as she swung helplessly back and forth above the ground.  
Maria’s vision blurred and dropped out of focus, the terror crept into her veins, her heart rate suddenly spiked as the sudden shock she felt caught her off guard and if she allowed it to happen, she would’ve had a heart attack from the fear. But as if fate was on her side, she somehow didn't, which was good for her, one wrong move and Maria would’ve dropped to the desert sands. Maria tore her gaze away from the ground, which was hard to do but it had to be done, instead she turned her face back to the large white crystal.  
The crystal itself was about three quarters into the hole, only one more quarter to go and the crystal would be sealed once more and for good, but with Maria’s cloak gone, it was now made impossible. Maria cursed under her breath, her eyes shut tight, at this rate she was doomed, there was no way she could completely screw in that crystal. Maria let out a choked cry as her mind flashed back to when she was captured after stealing Amory’s notes. The guards had her pinned down and chained, her friends were stuck on the sidelines, screaming for mercy. Sir Amory was standing above her, grinning with the most evil grin and his eyes...eyes that held hurt...anger and betrayal, the words he said sent chills up her spine. “You are doomed now Maria, your situation is hopeless and your fate is sealed.”  
Words that had echoed with her ever since she was thrown into the desert, the words that echoed with her every single agonizing day she set out in the land of the sand looking for help. She should’ve expected this, her situation was hopeless, why did she expect hope when there was none to be found. “No! No! No! NO!” Maria’s mind shouted at herself, the snow-white tiger let out an anger-filled growl. What was she doing? What the hell was she even thinking?! She couldn’t give up, not now she couldn’t, not when she was so close to fitting that gem into its slot, she had to finish what she started.  
But how? The cloak she used to stand on had torn, how was she...An idea popped into her head, Maria quickly swung her body back and forth, her tail at the front prepared and ready, when she felt she had enough power, Maria launched her tail and body forward and grabbed one of the small crystals. Maria gritted her teeth and coiled her tail even tighter around the gem, knowing that her tail wasn’t enough, Maria reached out with her back paws and grasped the other crystals.  
With the new stand in place, Maria panted heavily to regain some energy, sweat formed on her brow but still she continued. With raw strength, the white tiger turned the large crystal the final turn, the slot got tighter and tighter till finally it was fully in. The large crystal let out a small spark then it and the smaller crystals flashed a bright white. Maria was blinded by the flashing light, her reflexes overtook her and she let go of the crystals which made the tiger fall to the ground.  
The world around her suddenly slowed down as the white tiger felt her life flash before but due to her being blinded, everything around her was a haze but she swore she saw herself as a young cub along with Sir Amory, playing together with a ball then it flashed toward the betrayal Maria had done in order to save the world, the second that flashback came back to her, a single tear fell from her eye as she neared the ground. “Why did you do this? Why...father?” Maria thought to herself as she shut her eyes to avoid looking at the oncoming ground.  
The second a puff of sand popped up from the ground, the tower had finally gained enough power and a ring of white light blasted outwards, shooting throughout the entire desert causing the creatures of the sands to flinch in surprise and stare up at the sky. “What is that?” a lioness member of the Outback Cult demanded, her name was Leslie. “I have no idea,” replied Lena, a snow leopard, as she had snapped herself out of her trance at her partner’s words. “But I think it came from the east direction of the desert.”  
“Go investigate the east side of the desert,” Leslie snapped to Lena and her partner, a lynx, pointing her paw in the east. “Oh and one more thing, if you find Maria alive and well, kill her right away, don’t let her escape this time.”


	3. Between Friend And Foe

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Warning: this chapter may contain some subject matter that some readers might find disturbing such as violence, blood and of course acid-spitting killer worms. Reader discretion is advised.

Maria groaned as her eyes flickered open, her vision was blurred and made it hard for her to see. The white tiger grabbed her throbbing head and sat up, she shook her head to help ensure the world stopped spinning. When she felt alright, Maria stood up on her paws and looked around till she looked up and saw the white crystals on the bottom of the satellite were now glowing with strong white light.  
Maria smiled when she first saw the light as she finally had a way to leave this awful desert, but the more she stared, the more she realized something was up. Though the satellites used electric magic as well as the magic of crystals which Maria learned while she had a job working with metal satellites and magic infused crystals, she didn’t once remember the crystals being on the bottom of the satellite though this could be explained by the fact that she had never worked with satellites in the desert but even with this knowledge in mind, she still found it rather odd.  
Maria then glanced over toward the ripped remains of her cloak that was just blowing in the wind. “Well guess, I don’t need that piece of junk anymore,” the white tiger muttered bitterly. “Thing was pretty useless and hot anyway.” Maria pulled herself off the ground and brushed the sand off her body. She took a deep breath and huffed, she shut her eyes tight before she felt her ears twitch, the white tiger turned her head around and around in a circle, trying to find the source of the noise, what she saw nearly made her jump in fright. Walking toward her home was a snow leopard and a lynx both wearing a collar that read “Outback” right on the front.  
The second Maria saw the collars, her blood ran cold in less then a second before adrenaline took effect. It was two members of Outback Cult, two of Sir Amory Aaron’s best servants and once friends though more with Lela then Lena. Both of these girls were excellent players in using stealth for sneaking up on unsuspecting victims in the darkness of night and even in the brightness of the sun to destroy or capture their hostages and skill in combat moves in taking out their enemies and could do that without too much trouble, even a not well-timed punch would take anyone to their knees. However that wasn’t the only reason to be afraid of them, they were two silent killers who were very capable of taking out anyone with a single arrow from their deadly crossbows, it would only take a second to get taken out, you would never see it coming. So they were two characters you didn’t want to mess with unless you wanted to die.  
Maria gasped in terror and quickly dashed off to her cave to hide before the two big cats noticed her, she had no idea what those two wanted with her but she didn’t feel like stepping out of her safe place to get annihilated. “There’s nothing out here, Lena,” the lynx who was named Lela asked Lena, her voice becoming a bit shaky. “Are you sure the fugitive tiger is here?” Lena took a breath before answering. “Well, there’s no one out here in this little spot of the desert but her, so what’s your answer?”  
Lela flinched at her higher-up’s harsh tone, she bowed her head and pawed at the hot sand of the desert. A bright light suddenly caught the attention of both big cats, Lela winced from the sudden light as it was still early morning and her eyes weren’t used to the bright light. Lena, on the other paw, walked by the lynx and looked up at the now working satellite, her jaw dropped in surprise. “What the…?” the snow leopard asked herself though she was loud enough for her partner to hear her, confusion now coming into her core and working its way onto her face. “What’s wrong?” Lela asked, quickly walking up to her and following her gaze toward the four white crystals that were brightly glowing with strong white light that was capable of blinding anyone who stared at their light for too long. “What on Nibiru is that?” Lela demanded, having to tear her gaze from the crystals to ensure her vision stayed alive.  
Lena looked around then back at the crystals before she realized something. “Someone powered up that tower,” the snow leopard responded, her anger began to grow, her ears lowered themselves against her head. “And I know who it is.” Lela gasped in surprise and whipped her head back to her partner in crime. “What?! Do you mean Maria powered up the satellite?! But how?! And why...” Lena tore her angry glare away from the bottom of the satellite to look around to make sure that there was no one else in that small part of the desert.  
“Well, there’s no one out here but her, that tower is suddenly turned on, that cloak is blowing in the wind and a giant blast of light is being spread out in the desert which is disturbing it, so what’s your explanation?!?!” Lela didn’t answer her as she didn’t have any sort of explanation for that question or at least not one that made sense to her.  
From the cave, Maria poked her head out to watch the two cats fearfully, her heart was still pounding in her throat from the sudden shock from seeing those two once again and realizing she was in deep trouble as she figured Sir Amory Aaron had purposefully sent those two out to destroy her, however her terror calmed once she saw they were distracted by the satellite tower she had managed to turn on but she wasn’t out of the lion’s den just yet, if she attempted to leave the cave, she would be caught by Lena and Lela then annihilated without a second thought as the desert didn’t provide her any other hiding spots then the few caves.  
Maria cursed under her breath as she realized how much the odds were against her still even after gaining a small shred of hope, when she had first thought of powering up the satellite, she didn't want to call the attention of the Outback Cult to her, she really wanted to call the attention of any rescuers who might want to help her. “Wendigo dammit!” Maria cursed, her voice raising despite her trying to keep quiet, her left paw clutched into a fist as she punched the cave wall, she let out a little yelp as she winced in pain and grabbed her paw.  
Lena’s ears twitched as she suddenly caught the sound from the cave and she looked over to the thing, Maria quickly backed up into the rocky wall to hide from both big cats but she knew that just hiding wasn’t going to make them go away. “Lena?” Lela asked the leopard as she noticed her partner wasn’t looking at her or the satellite anymore. The snow leopard didn’t answer the lynx, she instead walked over to the cave, Lela stared for a few seconds before she followed after the bigger white cat to where she was going.  
Maria’s ears twitched on their own accord and when they did, her heart started to pound rapidly as she was knocked back to her senses. Knowing she would be found rather quickly, Maria worked up all her courage and sprinted into the darkness of the cave, Lena heard the sound of sand being kicked up and headed right over to the cave, seeing a small bit of white charging into the darkness, she gasped in surprise. “There she is!” Lena shouted, snapping Lela out of her trance and pointing to the white tiger sprinting deeper into the dark cave. “I knew she was behind this! Get her and don’t let her live! Make sure she’s captured and dead!”  
Lela hesitantly nodded and charged forward, both high servants of Amory kicked it into high gear and descended into the cave. Maria, who happened to be way ahead of them but behind enough to hear Lena’s threatening warning as well as her crazed breathing as she and Lela ran after her in hot pursuit and she honestly didn’t need any more warnings to get her adrenaline rushing and her legs moving faster. As she dashed faster than her weakened legs could manage, everything went by in a blur and started to become dark as if night was incoming and not day which made just a little bit more difficult to see, but she continued as this was her only choice.  
Behind her, the pants of both Lela and Lena became fainter and fainter but even from afar, Maria could tell they were desperately trying to catch up with her so they could attempt to kill her. However things were starting to go in her favour, around the big cats, the scenery around them was turning more black which made everything more and more difficult to see. Though Lena and Lela were unable to see her, Maria was unable to see her surroundings as she crashed into the cave walls as she tried to get away and since she had no lanterns on her paws or in her bags, Maria couldn’t create light.  
Maria had to pull herself off the cave wall after crashing into it, her head started to throb violently, it was a giant surprise that she hadn’t fallen unconscious from the impact. Maria strained her eyes to try to see through the darkness but she couldn’t see a thing that was several miles away from her, her only senses that seemed to be working perfectly was her hearing as she could make out the sounds of panting coming from both her and her enemies, Maria had to slow her breathing in order to ensure Lena and Lela wouldn’t hear her breath as it created an echo in a cave.  
The white tiger clasped both her paws over her mouth to ensure she stayed silent as voices started to echo around her. “Where the hell is she?!” Lena shouted angrily, looking around the dark cave in an attempt to find the fugitive. “I can’t see anything or where she is!” Maria held still and kept pressed against the cave wall, both her paws pressed firmly to her mouth and her eyes were wide with terror as adrenaline pumped through her veins, almost making her work an overdrive. Even though both Lena and Lela couldn’t see her in the darkness of the cave, she didn’t dare move even one muscle for their sense of hearing wasn’t dulled down and she figured one wrong move would attract their attention to her and she did not want to bring them to her now, not when she was so vulnerable.  
By this time, both servants of Amory began to wander around the cave, starting to come closer to the place she was hiding. Maria felt her eyes widen even more, her heart started to pound more violently to the point that she felt like she was going to have a heart attack. The white tiger didn’t know of a moment in life that made her say ‘oh crap’ more than once then this one moment and it was justified as two very dangerous assassins were hunting her down to turn her into a skin rug for Amory to rub his paws on and Maria didn’t want to become a luxray product for her worst enemy, someone else maybe, but not Amory as he was the worst jackass ever.  
Maria was snapped out of her cringe and fear induced fantasy by the feel of some kind of...animal? Maria looked downwards to find a worm-like creature crawling on her left paw, though it was quite dark in the cave to see it, it’s dark red coat was still noticeable because of how good cats’ eyes were in dark places. The white tiger had to hold back a scream of terror as she stared at the deadly worm, it was not a normal worm, it was the Mongolian Death Worm, the deadliest worm of the desert that was capable of spitting acid and zapping any enemies with electricity from their tails which makes the worm a dangerous foe to anyone in the desert even to exiled fugitives.  
Maria held still as she stared intensely at the red worm as it slowly crawled across her paw, it didn’t seem to notice her as it had no eyes, it seemed more interested in getting to whatever location in the cave it was going to, but even then, Maria didn’t want to take any chances and make any moves or noises as there was another threat in the cave who were more than capable of sniffing her out in no time. From deep in the sands, more of the Mongolian Death Worms popped out and crawled across the cool sand, leaving behind a long trail from their long bodies, going to some unknown place in the cave thankfully not in her direction, Maria did not know how she was going to handle Lena and Lela as well as the Mongolian Death Worm.  
A loud female scream interrupted Maria’s staring which made her jump nearly out of her black and white skin, the white tiger frantically looked around the cave though she could barely see a thing, after a few seconds later, she realized the voice belonged to Lela. A small flame came into being far from the cave wall Maria was standing, Lena held up a small match from a book of matches she dropped to the ground that provided the two big cats with a small light and was just enough to reveal the group of red worms scooting across the ground heading in an unknown direction to Wendigo-knows-where. Both girls were now terrified at the sight of the dangerous death worms, though Lena would never show her fear, Lela was a whole different can of crazy tuna in the monster infested sea.  
“Oh my Wendigo!” Lela nearly screamed which would’ve made an echo in the dark cave and startled the cave dwellers making them run away in different directions. “It’s the Mogolian Death Worm!” The younger cat began to shake violently from the sudden fear-adrenaline rush and surprise after seeing the desert’s main threat, Lena quickly grabbed Lela and they backed into the other wall of the cave and waited for the worms to pass before they set out once again. “Calm down,” Lena said, grabbing Lela’s shoulders and shaking her slightly to get her to stop freaking out. “They’re gone now.”  
“Calm down?! We’re trapped down in this cave with the Mongolian Death Worm and we don’t have any supplies to handle them and…” Lela was cut off by Lena putting a paw to her mouth, she then pointed a paw right at the trail, seeing another group of worms crawling across the sand, this time heading in the north direction. Lena then started walking off away from the lynx to glance down into the caverns. Lela stared at the snow leopard in confusion, unsure what to make of her reaction until she realized Lena was following the death worms as if they knew where they were going and where the exit was. Lela watched her for a few seconds as if her partner thought following the deadly red worms was a smart move, but considering she and Lena were trapped in a cave, in pitch black darkness with no sense of direction, she didn’t have a choice in the matter.  
Maria’s ears twitched as she heard the sound of sand being kicked up from the ground and her eyes became wild with terror as she realized Lena and Lela were heading in her direction and from the looks of things, they had a bit of light on their side even if it wasn’t much. Despite them not having a lot of light in this dark cave, even a little light from a single match could be Maria’s downfall since now the two could see her if they got too close to her, even though Maria was doing a good job at completely out of sight, she was now even less safe. However, despite the risks, there was also an advantage, she had a way to see where they were going, if she could stay out of their line of sight, she could get away from their clutches.  
However the problem of them still being able to hear her was still in the air, but there wasn’t much she could do unless she could do something about the two dangerous cats but she had no plan, even if she did, getting close to the two assassins was a gamble she didn’t want to take. Maria looked around the dark cave, trying to find a way out of the cave but darkness minus the tiny light from Lena’s matchstick surrounded her, despite being faraway, she had to run in order to get away from the two. However her enemies had an advantage over her being the light from their match and unfortunately she didn’t have any source of light, if she tried to flee the cave, she would be running blind which would most likely get her killed either by the death worms or Lena and Lela.  
Cursing under her breath from her sheer bad luck, Maria planted her four paws on the ground as quietly as she could, small bits of sand puffed up a cloud of dust but that was the least of her problems, the white tiger trained her eyes to see through the darkness, she found a long piece of wood lying in the sand. Maria sighed and grabbed it with her right paw, deciding something was better than nothing even if it wasn’t weapon material, so it would act as torch material, but there came the issue of lighting it without a match. She thought for a minute before she realized her enemies had to have a book of matches on them, after all how would they have gotten light in the first place? Once this thought came to mind, Maria quickly walked out from her hiding place and went to look for the matches, but finding them would be a challenge.  
Feeling the stony wall of the cave, Maria carefully and slowly walked in the deep tunnels, the white tiger had to train her blue eyes to see through the caves in order to find the tunnel both Lena and Lela had went down, using a mental note of the cave when it was lit up by the small light. As expected, it was damn near impossible as she couldn’t see and had to rely on her hearing to alert her to any danger she may encounter, but even in this type of situation, she continued moving as time was the essence and she had to hurry before her foes found her and annihilated her.  
Around her, more Death Worms burst out of the sand and crawled around her paws. The white tiger tried not to look at any of them as she couldn’t afford distractions but at the same time, she couldn’t afford stepping on the worms. Though it was hard for her to see where exactly the matches were, digging around in the sand in different spots led her to the discarded box of matches. Opening the box of matches and pulling one out, Maria struck a match and lit the piece of wood which was now acting as a torch. Maria had to blink as her eyes adjusted to the new light as she was more used to the darkness in the cave as she was in that place for a long while but she now had a way to get out of the cave.  
With her sight in check, Maria scanned the cave for a way out but instead she found four other tunnels: one to the north, one to the south, one to the west and one to the east, Maria froze in her tracks for a few seconds as she didn’t realize the cave was larger then she realized. The white tiger looked around each one but she found no light at the end of the tunnel which was what she expected as she had ran deep into the caverns but that also meant that she had no idea which way to go, so at this point she had to make a guess.  
“Okay, so I went North when I first went in here and from the way I entered into this tunnel when I first went in here and from the west,” Maria said quietly to herself, rubbing her chin in thought, looking around in every direction. “So that means that the way out is south.” Maria pointed her paw in the direction of what she believed to be south, she took a deep breath and descended into the cave tunnel, the torch lighting her way. The sand under her paws was kicked up and left little piles of sand against the rocky walls.  
Maria nervously looked around the cave, her ears pulled back as she moved her torch to find a way out but the tunnel continued. Despite everything being completely silent all around her, Maria was still very nervous as the possibility of running into her enemies or the Molgolian Death Worm was still a high possibility however running into Lena and Lela was a fifty percent split chance as there was only of them and they were most likely to be in another part of the cave at this point in time but the Mongolian Death Worms were another story as there were probably hundreds of them in the desert and the caves and since she didn’t want to any at all, she had to be careful.  
A small ray of light shone in the cave which caught Maria’s eye, the white tiger turned her head in the direction of the spark, she let out a gasp at the sight of little shards of crystals lying on the sandy ground. Maria walked over to the shards and examined them, from the looks of things, it looked like they were broken off of crystal rocks by some brute force but from who or what was the question Maria didn’t know the answer to, but she decided to ignore the crystals and continue on as they weren’t as important as getting out of the cave.  
Finally after a few minutes of walking, a light suddenly shone at the end of the tunnel, Maria’s eyes suddenly blinked on their own as the light bugged her eyes since she was so used to being in the darkness, as she came closer to the source, the light became even brighter. “What is that?” Maria demanded to herself, raising a paw to cover her stinging eyes, the white tiger almost tripped and stumbled off a cliff since she had her eyes covered, once Maria had her balance, she put her paw down and gasped in surprise at what she saw. The south tunnel she had walked down had led her to not the way out but instead toward another part of the cave in the deepest chambers she never knew existed, there was sand everywhere like expected but there was a rock hill leading upwards to another cliff, rocks hung from the ceiling and the floor. There were holes into the ceiling which allowed light to come into the caves making it more brighter than the rest of the caverns.  
Maria stared breathlessly at the newly revealed cavern in awe as she had never seen this part of the cave before in all her time being in the desert as she wasn’t too interested in sightseeing and more in escaping, but her staring was interrupted by the constant reminder that she needed to escape the cave from you-know-who before they caught up with her. She shook her head to snap herself back to reality, she looked around the cavern for another way out but she couldn’t find an open part of the cave from where she was standing so she had to leave the cliff to look around, but first she had to get down. Maria looked over the cliffs for an easy way downwards since she had no rope on paw, but thankfully for her, she found a rocky hill next to the cliff that led down.  
With little time to waste, Maria charged downwards and hit the sand with a bit of force which made a large sand cloud. Once the dust cleared, the white tiger looked up and around before she walked around the cavern in awe. She wandered over to a second rock hill however the top was much shorter than the previous one, she headed up the second rock hill and took a look finding a large rock resting near a tall rock wall with a second cliff looking over the cave. She looked up at the wall itself seeing the many drawings that depicted the first life of the many species that bloomed from the magical first flowers from the Tree of Life. Looking even further, Maria found more drawings of the first tribes of Humans, Camans and many other species gathering for the creation of the first communities in the lands of Nibiru.  
However peace didn’t last long according to the next set of cave drawings, above the village where the tribes lived, a seven headed dull blue dragon with blood red eyes had trashed the village with it’s black fire and devoured the villagers with it’s seven maws. The next one showed seven creatures battling the dragon with powerful magic but the dragon was also putting up an equally intense fight of its own, it’s seven maws fired out black fire and it’s four arms slammed down on the sand to knock down the seven rebels. However the story suddenly cut off as the next drawing was dusted and fading from years of neglect, Maria went up to examine it but no such luck in finding it.  
“Hmm, this looks like the story of the four rulers before they ruled the first created kingdom of Nibiru,” Maria muttered to herself, stroking her chin in thought as she tried to examine the old drawings closer. As the white tiger was distracted by the sights of the cave, both Lena and Lela emerged from another cave that was higher from the cliff Maria had been on previously. Lena looked over the cavern, discovering that they were in one of the many caverns that the Camans and other species lived in before they headed out into the desert to create the first kingdom of Nibiru. “Does this look familiar to you?” the snow leopard asked the lynx suddenly as she appeared, Lela looked over at her.  
“What do you mean?” Lela asked, her face showed confusion at what Lena had just said. “Look around, this is one of many caverns that the long ago people of this world his in before they created their kingdom,” Lena replied, pointing into the cavern as she began recalling the facts she had learned in that one ‘history of Nibiru class’ or something like, she could never remember the name that one class in school. Lela looked around the cave and scratched her head, her ears raised up however Lena didn’t seem to notice as she was distracted by the other sights in the cave and recalling the history lesson before her eyes caught sight of something white with black stripes, she gasped in shock and backed up, bumping into Lela in the process which made the lynx jump in surprise. “What the?! Lena, what happened?!”  
The snow leopard grabbed the lynx rather roughly by the jaw and brought her to the end of the cliff. Lela herself, gasped in surprise at the sight of Maria down in the lower parts of the caverns, staring at one of the walls with wonder. The lynx lowered her ears sadly and she bit her lip as she tried to hold her tears back, Lena didn’t notice or rather care, she instead dropped Lela and slowly plucked out a crossbow which was loaded already. An evil smirk crossed onto her face as she stared down at her prey, her finger pressed hard against the trigger and without thinking or hesitation, she fired an arrow. The projectile flew through the air with near lightning speed, it’s blade pointed forward to strike it’s target. It would’ve taken a second for Maria to be struck by the deadly tool for its speed and silence were two factors against the tiger, but somehow Maria turned her head suddenly on instinct and jumped backwards just as the arrow struck the ground.  
The snow-white tiger started frantically looking around to find out where the hell that wooden device came from till her attention shot back toward the higher cliff were two very familiar big cats. Adrenaline pumped into her veins as the terror set in once again, her tail puffed up like a scared cat and her eyes went wide as she let out a weak choking sound. Lena grabbed another arrow and loaded the crossbow once again, firing it once again at the tiger. Maria was now terrified at this point and she knew she couldn’t stay in this place anymore, not with a blood-lust maniac trying to kill her.  
Lena’s bow fired another arrow once again at the white tiger and Maria jumped out of the way before the arrow could strike her. The Outback Cult assassin let out an angered scream and got out all of her arrows and loaded them into her bow. “Grab your bow, Lela!” Lena shouted in rage at the scared lynx, making her jump a couple of feet backwards. “We’re ending this right now!” The lynx hesitated for a second but obeyed, she pulled out her bow and fired an arrow which missed Maria by a landslide because of her trembling. “KEEP FIRING!!” Lena shouted at Lela in her loudest voice, making her flinch in surprise. “Don’t let her get away!”  
Below them, Maria ran for her life, she scanned the area with her wide eyes, trying to find a way out in her frenzy, she didn’t find much luck other than the two hills she and the other two cats had exited from. Cursing under her breath, Maria almost tripped over a straight stone sticking out of the ground which would’ve knocked her to the sandy ground, which would’ve made her an easy target for Lena and Lela. However she wasn’t going to give them any satisfaction of killing her so easily.  
A slither in the sand caught the attention of Maria in an instant, the snow-white tiger looked down at the sand and let out a scream of terror as one of the Mongolian Death worms broke out of the sand and let out a hiss of rage as a shot of acid went flying straight at her. With good luck and speed, Maria jumped out of the way before the acid could hit her, she grunted as her entire body landed on a bulb in the sand which exploded on contact. Upon realizing her error when the dust cleared, Maria quickly scrambled to her paws and moved like a rocket.  
From above the cavern’s bottom floor, both Lena and Lela watched the chaos unfold. Lena now had an evil grin on her face that almost matched Sir Amory’s. Lela, on the other paw, appeared more nervous and uncertain almost like she was afraid for Maria which she was in all honesty.  
The lynx privately admitted to herself that she really wasn’t on board with the plan of killing Maria as that tiger was one of her friends, Maria was always the first one to defend her and hang with her when Maria was still working with Amory, however when the white tiger discovered their boss’ evil plans and was exiled for it, Lela was torn between two people she cared about: Maria because she was her most beloved friend and Amory because Lela was his most trusted servant and he treated her well, but now at this point in time, Lela couldn’t continue this.  
Without thinking, Lela jumped off the cliff and with her razor sharp claws glowing a bright blue, slashed through the death worms like they were made of paper. Lena’s smile suddenly changed to a shocked jaw drop facial expression. “What the hell are you doing Lela?!?” Lena shouted, becoming full on enraged at the sudden turn of events. At the sound of Lena’s voice, Maria turned around, pausing in her running to face her friend. “Lela?! What are you doing?!” Maria shouted at the lynx, asking the exact same question that Lena had asked which was completely redundant. “Helping you!” Lela replied, her claws sunk back into their pockets.  
“Are you crazy?!” the white tiger shouted, a lot louder then she usually yelled. “You’ll be killed!!” Sand suddenly puffed up as the red worms dove back into their hiding places and swooped away. “Hell no!” Lela countered, planting her front paws back on the sandy ground making a small puff. “Look at what I just did a few seconds ago!” Maria looked around, seeing bumps and and holes in the sand where the death worms were once before, realizing that she was right but even so, it was still too dangerous for even a very powerful combat cat like Lela. Maria herself, was a strong cat in physical combat and magical combat, but from spending a lot of time in that desert with barely any food and water, Maria’s body had grown weak meaning she could hardly perform a simple light spell which was bad news as there were dangerous creatures in the desert yet somehow she managed to find the strength to get up and do whatever was necessary to escape, she will never understand fate.  
Maria opened her mouth to protest but her gaze was stolen by the snarling snow leopard up above on the higher cliffs, Lena now had on a furious look on her usually smug face, her eye was twitching violently and her body was trembling insanely. Maria felt her pale fur go even paler from fear, her wide blue eyes were now focused on the terrifying sight of the snow leopard slowly descending into madness like Amory had done, but it seems like this one was more violent and unstable. Actually, now that she thought about it, she had never seen Amory’s descent into madness, the closest example was when she was captured and his reaction didn’t scare her somehow, maybe because she never saw his mental breakdown.  
This however, scared the hell out of her and she probably knew why, she hadn't seen a mental breakdown before and there was a good reason for that, she was a young cub when she was growing up with Amory. Although she had seen Amory and had a hint that something was wrong with him as he was acting quite odd….odd, she never knew or figured out the truth till she turned twenty-four. Maria snapped herself out of her memories by the sound of wicked laughter, at this point, Lena had jumped off the higher cliff and was slowly making her way toward Lela and Maria.  
Now that Lena was close enough, Maria could see the terrifying state of the broken leopard, her white and black spotted fur had somehow messy, her eyes widened and bloodshot and her teeth were grounded together in a disturbing smile that could give Amory’s smile a run for its money. Both Maria and Lela were utterly shocked at the state of the Outback Cult’s top servant looking like she had pushed way too hard to the end of her breaking point and they had no idea on what to do at the moment like either stop her before she hurt anyone or something like that. However without any warning, Lena suddenly ran up to Lela, reared back on her hind legs and striked Lela right on the chest, three large claws appeared when the attack struck, blood started pouring out at a rapid pace.  
Maria let out a horrified gasp as Lela fell to the ground, the snow leopard following her and taking a huge bite out of her gut causing the lynx to scream in pain, now her face was as bloody as her right paw. Lena then turned her mad gaze toward Maria, an evil grin crossed onto her face as she saw the fear in the white tiger’s eyes. Maria’s wide eyes narrowed on her predator as she watched the snow white leopard come closer, blood dripping from her maw, painting the ground a dark crimson that didn’t blend in with the golden sand. Though her vocal cords were frozen in fear, her mind was screaming at her to run, get away from this sick psycho as quickly as she could.  
As much as she wanted to, she didn’t want to leave Lela behind, but her body was weakened from the time in the desert and the constant strain of running and she didn’t think she could support the weight of herself and Lela. Lela looked up into the blue eyes of Maria and mouthed one single word: ‘Go’. That one word was all she needed to make her decision, Maria turned tail and sprinted back up the cliff she ran down from earlier, Lena let out a insane cackle and charged after her at a much faster pace, kicking up sand and death worms so violently that it sent them flying backwards and some hit Lela in the face, she was thankful none of them spat acid or shocked her.  
The world around Maria started to go dark as she headed back into the dark tunnels of the cave minus the light of her torch which was still gripped tight in her tail. The light from the fire caught the white tiger’s eye and she turned to face the item she had on paw. At this point, she had a way of escaping the cave but she was also in grave danger. Although Lena didn’t have any light of her own and would most likely get lost, that didn’t let Maria out of the dangerous waters yet as she was the only one with light so that would make her easy to track in the darkness of the cave.  
The cackles of the insane snow leopard started to fade and echo as Maria moved away from the sounds and soon, she found herself back in the four way tunnel once again. Her mind raced as she frantically looked around, trying to remember the way she came. Her breath came out rather heavy and raspy, her throat burned as she breathed as it had become dry while she was running. Her brain was whirring around like mad, her thoughts were racing at top speed like a champion runner at the olympic games which made it difficult to remember the way she came from.  
Cursing, Maria shut her eyes tight and tried to shut off the rest of her thoughts so she could focus on which way was the way she came from. Though a huge headache was starting to take over, Maria refused to lose focus, she couldn’t not when there was a completely insane assassin on her tail. It took only a few seconds, but Maria finally figured out the route thankfully, a smile spread across her face however it faded when she heard the sound of heavy and frantic breathing from behind her.  
Maria didn’t need to turn around to know who it was and she knew she couldn’t stick around in this place for long. Kicking herself into overdrive, Maria jumped from her spot and sprinted down the west tunnel. Lena followed close behind, she paused at the west tunnel, her wide eyes stared unblinkingly at the fading light from the torch Maria carried in her tail, her crazed grin grew even wider if such a thing was possible, the drops of blood on her face fell from her face and onto the ground, she licked her lips and smiled even more making her grin stretch to impossible lengths as she imagined the feeling of Maria’s blood on her claws when she caught up to her and torn her to shreds.  
Adrenaline pumping through her veins, Lena charged forward into the west tunnel, although she couldn’t see Maria now, she knew where she was. The familiar sights of the middle part of the cave finally came back into view as Maria made it back, the white tiger paused to take a few deep breaths as she had been running for a while, she gave a little cough as her throat was dry, the tiger grabbed her head as a headache started to take over once again. Upon opening her eyes, she saw a spark coming from the south direction which was the exit to the cave, a few seconds or a minute of running and soon she would be back out in the desert. Maria started to feel relieved as she was finally going to get out.  
However her relief faded once she heard the sound of heavy breathing which echoed loudly in the cave, Maria’s ears twitched and her heart started to pound. She knew who it was and it wasn’t friendly, Maria looked around till her head in the west tunnel she had come from, the heavy-crazed breathing coming from the tunnel was rapidly approaching, soon enough the danger would be here at any point. Maria backed up a little, the exit was right there and running south would get her out of the cave but she had a problem on her paws. The white tiger looked at the torch in her tail, it had been helpful before but now it would be her end if it wasn’t discharged.  
However the cave would still be dark and if the torch was discharged, she would be unable to see and would most likely crash into the wall, should she risk throwing the torch and rushing for the exit? Or try to stall out Lena for as long as possible so she could get rid of Lena and safely get to the exit? Maria started to sweat nervously as she struggled with her decision with two unappealing options that had an outcome but probably not a positive one before her ears twitched once again, realizing that Lena was less than a few feet away, she now only had seconds to make her choice, she decided to take her risk and get the hell out of there.  
“Oohh Maria,” called a terrifying and high-pitched voice, the snow white tiger whipped her head around to find Lena’s face was approaching out of the darkness dimly lit by the torch. Behind her, several death worms popped out of the sand and crawled around her paws like creepy crawlers in a horror movie. Maria let out a fearful gasp as she backed up, adrenaline pumping through her veins. “Well, looks like you’re trapped in here with no way out, what are you going to do about it? Give up, you’re done for, die under my paws.” Lena let out a high-pitched insane laugh before she let out a screech of fury and charged forward with her claws exposed, striking out at Maria’s chest.  
Acting on impulse, Maria chucked the torch in her tail with brute force of a dragon or a powerful god, striking Lena in the face with the flames facing her. Lena let out a scream of pain and started swatting at her face but missing the flames covering her white fur, she stumbled over the sand and the red worms which freaked out and started shooting acid in every direction, some hit Lena as she tried to put out the flames on her face and find Maria, but upon reaching the spot the white tiger had been, Maria was gone as she had made it to the exit while Lena was distracted. Maria panted heavily as she sprinted down the tunnel she came in from once again, her paws kicked up sand as she ran, her vision began to come back as she ran toward the incoming light. For whatever reason, Maria looked down at her paws and gasped in terror at seeing the red death worms crawling along the sand, trying to get the hell away from the chaos ensuing in the cave, not that she could blame them.  
The light that came from the beginning of the tunnel hurt Maria’s eyes but at the same time gave her hope as finally she was getting out of there. The sand puffed up as a rather large object hit the ground, Maria coughed and panted like crazy, trying to get air into her lungs, her heart pounded wildly in her chest as she sat up and stared at the entrance of the cave, hoping to God that Lena wouldn’t follow her though she had doubt that Lena would follow her especially after she had gotten ambushed by both her torch and the red death worms, she was probably serious injured or dead at this point. After what felt like a full minute of staring, Maria sighed and stood on her paws, walking away from the cave with her head hung low.  
So many negative thoughts went through her head that Maria attempted to push into the back of her mind but they came back, the white tiger gave a sniff as she bit down on her lip, her eyes began to water but she refused to cry, she did enough of that already before. Instead she walked up to the powered on satellite and looked up, the white crystals were still glowing bright and strong as before. Maria gave a heavy sigh and dropped to the ground, her ears drooped, her eyes narrowed at the gold sand before she looked around and spotted something lying on the sand, she walked over to it and picked it up.  
“It’s a bag,” she realized, looking it over as she dusted sand off the leather bag. “It must belong to Lena...or Lela.” The white tiger opened the flag and dug through the bag, the first thing she noticed was a folded slip of paper. Curious, she pulled out the paper and unfolded it, she let out a shocked gasp when she realized it was a detailed map of the entire desert with several marked locations like the desert mountains, the small villages, the old satellite which was where she was staying and finally the old Nibiru kingdom, all with red circles around them. “So that’s how they found me!” Maria realized, her ears pulled back in fright. “What else did they mark down?” Examining the map further, the white tiger found a small town that was far north with a red circle around it that was far north, seeing it there made Maria realize the purpose of her turning the satellite on.  
She now had a way to find help and stop the Outback Cult! Maria glared up at the satellite and snorted, she decided not to just wait for help to find her out in the desert, she could wait for help to arrive but that would take too long, long enough for Sir Amory Aaron to move his cult toward their evil plan and succeed, but she also didn’t want to stay in the awful place that had put so much strain and pain on her, she needed to move and luckily for her, Lena’s bag had everything she needed to make the long journey like food, water etc. Putting her grief to the side, the white tiger set out into the desert with a plan to stop her enemies.  
Unknown to her, a lynx cat poked her head out of the cave with white bandages covering her body. “Good luck Maria,” the lynx whispered in a soft voice as Maria vanished into the distance.


	4. Escape

The Outback Cult Hideout, 9:20 pm  
The golden hallway sparkled with an eerie silver-gold color as the beautiful moon shone onto the room’s long hallway. Footsteps echoed loudly as two animals walked on the floor, each one carrying a torch in their paws, the dim light casted into an eerie glow which illuminated their faces and a small part of the hallway itself, making it easier to see where they were and where they were going. The kangaroo looked tough as he trekked along, he took a sharp breath as he kept his focus straight forward. The shorter, lighter coated lion beside him was nervous, he jumped at nearly every little noise and looked around the empty hallway to find, he gave a sigh.  
Finally, a set of golden double doors came into view which was the pairs’ destination. Judge Joseph approached the doors and carefully lifted the knob and tapped on the door. After three knocks, the judge set the knob back to its place and waited. Everything had become deathly silent once again much like it had been when everyone went to sleep before, Joseph looked down at his watch then at the dark sky outside the hallway. It was only nine-twenty o’clock and it was already pitch black like the sky was painted in the darkest paint you can buy in the hardware store. The desert’s day-night cycle was an odd one, day wasn’t until nine o’clock while the opposite was true for night as if the desert’s cycle was swapped with a winter forest.  
Joseph tapped his foot impatiently on the gold floor, he angrily looked down at his watch then back at the doors, waiting for the host behind the golden doors to open them. The lion standing opposite Joseph watched him in concern and nervousness then looked back at the doors as if he was expecting someone to answer, but this someone either wasn’t coming to answer them or wasn’t going to care or rather they didn’t hear the knocking. He gave a heavy sigh before jumping at the sudden sound breaking the silence that hung in the air of the Outback’s gold hallway, he whipped his head around to face the dark hallway only to find nothing there, his ears gave a little twitch as if he was expecting something or someone to pop out right at that exact moment, but there was nothing still.  
Judge Joseph gave an angry snort and grabbed the knobs once again, tapping them against the doors but this time a little harder but not too hard as the echoes would wake the entire cult if he wasn’t careful. When he set the knobs back to their places, the door suddenly and slowly creaked open rather ominously. Both animals jumped and looked into the room but it was too dark to see anything fully from where they were standing, raising the torches seemed to work a little but not by much. Joseph ushered to the other lion who swallowed fearfully and followed him into the second dark hallway. This hallway was like the first one, dark and ominous except unlike the first hallway, the second one had a low ceiling and no torches to light the way making it even more dark and ominous then the first hallway they had walked down before, at least the first hallway was more open and allowed the light from the stars and moon to come in thanks to the thing being larger and having wide windows.  
The terrified lion gave a fearful gulp as he clenched the torch tightly in his paw, he became even more terrified when he saw the closest wall next to him, lying on the ground yet still hanging on it’s stand by a few strings was a torn tapestry though he couldn’t tell what it was fully though he could make out a torn face.The ominous glow from the torch made it look even more terrifying as the face was severely torn and mangled, making whoever was on the fabric almost unrecognizable. Next to what was left of a once beautiful tapestry, was another torn tapestry but even more mangled then the one before and covered in some kind of dark stains almost like...rust, however that couldn’t be the case, fabric wasn’t the type of material that would get rusty overtime plus it was too dark to be rust and it looked almost looked like… The lion gulped harshly and turned his head away but not before catching a sight of dark pawprints surrounding the thing and the floor around it and him and the other he was with that were all too familiar. The lighter colored lion gulped again as he tried to look straight and not think too much of it, even if it wasn’t what he thought it was, there wasn’t any explanation that would explain why it looked so dark and...red.  
Judge Joseph didn’t glance at the broken tapestries or the dark pawprints as he was focusing his attention on another thing, up ahead was another set of golden double doors however as the two animals approached them, something quickly tipped them off right away. One of the gold doors was swinging on broken hinges, bits of woods laid scattered on the floor, several claw marks lined randomly on the sun colored doors and from the looks of things, it looked like something had severely damaged the doors, but the question of who or what had caused the damage was completely unknown. The shorter lion looked over at the damaged doors and fearfully swallowed once again, Judge Joseph just stared at the wreckage with a stunned look on his face, he was perfectly fine when he first approached this place when he and the other beside him went down for a meeting with the host of this room deep within the Outback Cult’s hideout, but now he was starting to have second thoughts about this whole meeting plan.  
But still, stubbornness overrode his good judgement, the judge approached the doors and knocked on the least damaged one, it slowly creaked backwards ominously till it hit the wall with a slight thump. The two animals froze in their tracks for a few seconds before carefully approaching the wreckage that use to be the golden double doors and peered inside. The room was dark or rather dimly lit by two torches hanging in each corner, but it was just enough to reveal the full carnage done to the room. Torn tapestries hung awkwardly on the walls or more likely they struggled to hang on to the rafters by a few threads. Parts of books lay scattered on the ground covered in the same dark stains as the tapestries themselves, their titles and pages were scratched and torn rather crudely into little pieces. The bookshelves themselves were also scratched, covered in dark stains and appeared to be missing some shelves or bits of themselves as if some wild creature had tore them to pieces. Several of the wooden and glass decorations that use to be on top of the bookshelves lie on the floor, broken with shards of themselves scattered on the floor, some even looking like they were stepped on. The state the room was in somehow looked even worse then the golden doors the two cult members previously saw.  
Both members just stared at the wreckage for a good full minute, they stayed silent as they looked around with their jaws dropped and their eyes wide as they both tried to process what the hell happened in this room. Was it some wild desert creature? Was it a criminal looking for something? Had Maria returned, trashed the place and stole some items to get back at them? Was it...Amory himself? Finally Judge Joseph shook his head then slapped himself in the face to ensure he wasn’t dreaming, once reality set in, he took a few careful steps forward into the room. “What the hell happened here?” he muttered, lifting his torch higher to light up the room more, revealing more of the wreckage inside, his eyes becoming wider as he walked around. “We should get out of here,” the shorter lion said in a shaky voice, he reached his paw out to try to stop him but it was no use as the kangaroo Judge had gotten ahead of him. “Come on man,” he urged, trying to talk the cult judge out of going forward so he didn’t leave the safety of the doors but still no luck.  
Sighing, he followed Joseph inside but he left the door open in case an easy escape was needed, not at the moment but just in case of something going awry, he wanted to be safe than sorry. “Umm, Joseph? Don’t you think this whole meeting was a bad idea? Maybe we come back, maybe tomorrow? Or next week? Please?” The judge’s fear turned to frustration in an instant, he shot his glare toward the shorter light colored lion who shrunk down into himself, his eyes still focused on the kangaroo. “Quiet now,” he hissed harshly, trying to mask his fear as best as he could. “There’s nothing else here but you and me, despite this room being trashed, there’s nothing here.” The judge turned his glare away to face the wreckage and the fear began to rise up once again which the lion caught.  
“Yes, but the hell would this place be trashed in the first place? Better questions, what the hell happened in here? Where’s Amory? Or what happened to the doors back there?” the lion protested, pointing a finger back toward the doors they had previously entered, one still swinging on broken hinges unsteadily. “Something seriously wrong has happened and we need to get out of here!” The lion’s voice sounded more high pitched then usual and it made a small echo in the room despite the boy’s attempts to keep his voice down for fear of disturbing something or someone. Judge Joseph remained silent as he put a paw to his chin, possibly pondering what his partner had said, but alas, his reply wasn’t what the lion wanted. “So what? There’s a logical explanation for everything! I’m sure Amory is a few minutes late, maybe had to go and check on something or…” he suddenly growled mid-sentence as he realized something. “That blasted tiger probably came back and tore the office apart to find something Amory had in his office and stole it to get back at us!”  
“How do you know for certain? Maria has been exiled to god knows where in the desert, she could probably be miles away from our hideout! Besides, even if she did come back, there would be no way she could break into Amory’s office without any of us knowing! I mean Amory did put up a security system to make sure no one but him gets in his office right?” Judge Joseph went silent again as he pondered to lion’s words, it was true that Sir Amory had put up a security system near his office after Maria had first stolen his notes for his plans for the world and attempted to bring him down, but the thing was Amory never explained what this was and where he put it. However his thoughts turned to another explanation that actually sounded possible but impossible at the same time, after all there were ways to destroy a security system.  
However his thoughts were torn away from his pondering by a sound like that of a door opening from far away but almost sounded close at the same time, both animals jumped in surprise as they clearly weren’t expecting this. The poor scared lion took a few more steps forward into the room or more accurately, he dashed a few more steps in order to get to his sense of safety, Judge Joseph didn’t object to this as he too was unnerved as hell for the sudden interruption that broke the silence, but nevertheless he worked up enough courage to call out to Sir Amory Aaron, after all, it could be him coming in for the meeting. “Sir Amory Aaron? Are you in here?”  
His voice echoed in the large room for a few seconds then stopped completely, leaving the two animals in complete silence once again. Judge Joseph gave a nervous swallow, his glasses fell from their place so he pushed them back up into place, he crossed his arms over his chest as he waited for a response but nothing happened. “Where is he?” the judge muttered under his breath, stroking his chin, he gasped in surprise and backed up when his eyes caught sight of something moving. “What’s wrong?” the shorter lion demanded, turning his head to face the cult judge when his gasp disturbed the silence, he gasped as well when he saw the shadows move.  
The two animals both spun around, almost dropping their torches from the sudden shock, they moved around to light different parts of the room in order to find the figure however they couldn’t see him...but they could hear him. Echoing footsteps that weren’t there before echoed throughout the seemingly empty trashed room, coming from the top of the room’s left corner then they headed to the right in less then a second. Shadows pulled and danced in an eerie manner which caught the attention of the two animals who both turned their heads wildly in the direction of the shadows however they didn’t get a good look at the figure before the lights suddenly went out, plunging the room into darkness minus the remaining two torches they had in their paws.  
Judge Joseph and the shorter lion held still when this happened, their minds completely taken over by fear at this point, their other senses turned off in an instant as they waited for something terrible or worse to happen. However the footsteps stopped much like the previous sounds leaving the room completely silent once again, the feelings of uneasiness that were present before had now intensified. Judge Joseph and the other lion were now terrified since it was more appropriate then afraid, that word just wouldn’t cut it, not at all in this kind of situation. Finally Judge Joseph moved his torch more upwards to find the figure but he didn’t dare move an inch for fear of disturbing something or someone.  
Upon performing this action, he caught sight of a figure in the darkness with glowing eyes, it almost didn’t look anything like a lion, in fact he didn’t know what the hell it was. The judge let out a frightened gasp and tumbled backwards, dropping the torch in the process. Now that it was a bit more dark, the sound of footsteps returned, this time they sounded closer rather than distant as if the source was less than a few seconds away. The judge stumbled to his feet and pushed his glasses up as they had fallen from place when he fell, he carefully approached the front desk which was in much better shape then the rest of the room, picking up the torch in the process. The footsteps stopped once again but Joseph wasn’t fooled, working up the courage, he walked up to the wooden desk and moved the torch down to get a better look at the figure, he noticed something on the desk he didn’t see before.  
A hand-sew plush of some kind of animal he couldn’t identify right away, sat right on the middle of the desk, the light from the torch made the sun-gold fur glow rather ominously, it’s button eyes stared at the judge lifelessly making him even more freaked out. However that wasn’t the only new thing in the room, as the judge looked upwards, he caught sight of an image of a lion standing right in front of him. Joseph jumped yet again and took a few steps away from the desk, however he then recognized the figure in less than a few seconds, he carefully approached the desk once again to examine the figure more closely. “Sir Amory Aaron?” he asked softly.  
“What is it?” the cult leader demanded in a tone of voice that sounded deep and menacing which hardly sounded like Amory at all but like a demon of some kind, it made the cult judge feel uneasy. “You wanted to see us, sir?” Judge Joseph said in a formal but shaky voice, the shakiness in his higher up’s voice was almost barely noticeable but the cult lion caught on though he didn’t say anything or gave any hints that he knew. “Hmm,” Amory said, stroking his chin carefully as he cocked his head to the side. “Oh right, I remember.” The lion took a couple more steps forward, lying his front paws on the wood desk. Now that he was close enough, both cult members caught sight of his appearance, this frightened them.  
In the eerie light of the torch, Sir Amory almost looked like a completely different lion, his dark mane was a mess, heavy bags and dark shadows hung under his blazing red eyes despite the cover of his glasses, his jaw was clenched tightly together revealing razor-sharp teeth. Though it was hard to see in the dim light of the torch, both Joseph and the younger lion then took notice that there were many bandages wrapped around his arms, some around his legs and waistline and not one of them why they were there in the first place.  
“So, what did you need us for?” the shorter lion asked, his voice gave a little tremble which was more noticeable which made him even more nervous, Amory took notice of this but he didn’t say anything to this either. “First things first, do you have the markings for where we have to go on the map?” the lion cult leader demanded, holding his right paw out. “All right here, done and marked,” Judge Joseph said, his voice turning from nervous to formulas he reached into his judge’s robes pockets, pulling out a single piece of paper which he had laid on Amory’s desk. Amory adjusted his glasses more so he could see better, a grin spread over his face as he saw the great results, the markings Joseph made on the map led out into the deepest parts of desert like the desert mountains, the small villages, the old satellite, and finally the old Nibiru kingdom where the items needed was hidden.  
“Excellent,” the cult leader said evilly, his claws tapped eagerly on the desk. “The crystals we needed for our plot on the Light Tower were right here in this desert under our noses! And the only thing we need to do now is head into the deepest parts of the desert and dig up the main crystal containing the Queen’s powerful magic and soon we will have the entire world! Oh how easy Maria is making things for us!” Joseph grinned as well just as evilly as Amory. “She might’ve believed that if she turned on the old satellite, she would contact help from the outside world, but she didn’t realize what she had done! Until it’s too late!” Both evil animals snorted with laughter as they looked back at the map, however the shorter lion was the only one who was not smiling, he had his wide eyes focused on the doll then Amory and Joseph, he couldn’t help but notice the doll looked way too similar to a real life lion, but who was the question he couldn’t answer.  
“Very good, I knew it was a good idea to bring you onto the team.” The cult leader looked up into the shady eyes of his comrade who grinned even wider back at him, however the two were snapped to reality by the golden doors being forced open and slammed against the walls, catching everyone’s attention. “What is going on?!” Sir Amory barked, his once calm demeanor swapping to anger in less than a second. “Sorry for my sudden entrance sir,” a Maine Coon cat said, nervously shifting her front legs on the floor. “But I’m afraid I have some bad news.” The group in the room remained silent as the Maine Coon stepped more inside, her legs wobbled and her breath came short. “What is it?” Sir Amory Aaron demanded, his claws scratching his wood desk, his teeth were gritted together in fury. “It’s Aaron, he’s gone!”  
This news brought out shocked gasps from the group, even Sir Amory whose facial expression shifted from anger to surprise in an instant. In that same instant, the cult leader suddenly sprung from his seat and bolted out of his trashed room, ignoring the mess from the broken golden doors. The cult members themselves stood still for a few seconds then they followed after him, passing by the trash on the floor as well as avoiding the swinging doors. The group raced through the dark hallways with only the moon providing them with light but still it was quite difficult to see, some squinted their eyes in order to see better.  
The moon faded from sight as the group headed up four long flights of stairs then took a right turn, heading into the hallways that led to the other cult members’ bedrooms, however the flames from torches came into sight which was more helpful than the moon, with the torches near each door to each members’ room, it was easy to find Aaron’s room. The door to Aaron’s room was shut and nothing looked out of place, the door was still in good condition like the others and unlike Amory’s broken doors, everything seemed normal but no one was fooled. Sir Amory Aaron stomped up to the door and kicked it down with a back leg, it broke off with little effort and crashed to the floor, creating a huge cloud of dust. When the dust cleared, Amory took a big step into the German Shepherd’s room, scanning the inside, finding it messy and destroyed as if a hurricane had swooped in but it wasn’t as bad as Amory’s room. The lion paused for a few seconds before taking notice of the open window, Amory slowly approached it and looked outside, but he found no trace of the German dog.  
Amory snapped back inside and whipped his livid face over to the group who stood at the doorway, they all stared in fear as the lion’s rage began to skyrocket beyond what was possible. “Ella?! What is the meaning of this?! Where is he?!?” Amory bellowed, his voice threatening to shatter all the windows in the gold building with the intensity of his shouts, Ella lowered her ears in response. “I don’t know,” she responded, scratching the back of her neck. “I was examining all the rooms after checking in with the mission board to make sure Lena and Lela had returned, but no word from them all day, when I went to check Aaron’s room…..I found it like that.”  
The Maine Coon lowered her head in shame, unknown to her, Amory’s facial expression shifted from anger to confused anger in an instant. “Hold on, Lena and Lela aren’t back from their mission?!” Ella lifted her head to look into the eyes of the Outback Cult’s boss which seemed to have their fire at the moment but she knew it wouldn’t last long as the fire was hiding behind the scenes, waiting to be free so it can cause chaos. “Unfortunately yes,” Ella responded, trying her hardest to keep looking Amory in the eyes and keep her tone steady. “They hadn’t returned from their mission you gave them earlier? About...Maria?” At the mention of Maria’s name, Amory’s expression shifted to one of anger but only mild anger thankfully. “Ah yes, that one mission that even a moron called complete after I had gotten word of Maria’s actions with the old satellite, seriously how hard is it to kill a single white tiger who had been out in the desert and was weakened each day?!”  
“Uhhh sir?” the shorter lion said nervously, his ears pulled back fearfully. “Maria was trained in survival skills and quick thinking, I doubt she would die that easily even if she was weakened in the desert.” That answer made the cult leader facepalm and sigh like he thought his underling had just said the most dumbest thing he had ever heard. “Really?! Who in the Snowy would train her in skills like that?!” The animals in the room all stared at their boss with dead-panned facial expressions as if to say “Uhh you did.” Amory quickly caught on. “Oh right, I did.” The furious lion shifted his facial expression then pointed out the door with a stern look on his face. “You go to my office and start the advancing plans,” he barked at his members namely Joseph and the lighter colored lion who all nodded and dashed out of the room except Ella who was watching the lion.  
“Uhh sir? What about Maria and the others?” Amory grinned evilly and rubbed his paws together, his ears pulled themselves back. “You let me worry about them, okay? I have much better plans for them.” The evil cult leader chuckled under his breath and rubbed his paws together for a second time as he thought about what he was going to do to the little traitors when he caught them while Ella looked on with a concerned look on her face.

Outside the Outback Cult Hideout, 9:30pm  
Aaron sweated furiously as he listened to the others talking as they searched up and down his room in his former home for him, a black backpack containing his supplies like food, water, a map, a lantern and a knife was firmly planted against his back as he stayed against the wall and a cloak was wrapped taut around his body, his hind legs were trembling violently from terror of what would happen if he got caught but he tried to hold himself as still as possible. The voices above started to fade from his hearing as they exited to go back to Amory’s office, but he continued to wait until he was sure everyone had left his room. When he heard everything go silent from above, he pulled away from the wall and gave a harsh swallow then pulled out a magical map to review as he had forgotten where he was supposed to go thanks to being brainfright.  
Once Aaron felt familiar enough with his surroundings, he quickly sprinted away from the Outback Cult’s hideout into the deep darkness of the desert, getting far away from that place and Amory as possible. Once he was far enough from the gold building, the German Shepherd let out a gasp of relief before dropping to the ground. He couldn’t believe his escape route had actually worked, but even then he wasn’t completely safe not till he found Lela and Maria. After Maria was exiled, Aaron along with some of her friends had snuck into the shadows to come up with an escape plan to break out of the Outback Cult and find Maria. However leaving the cult wasn’t going to be easy as Sir Aaron had his fully trained guards on patrol twenty-four hours, seven days a week marching up the halls to ensure no one tried to escape the cult or betray Amory, so trying to escape the halls was a bust.  
However what Amory didn’t count on was the Outback Cult had a bunch of secret tunnels under the building and a secret door in Aaron’s bedroom upon searching around on the building’s maps and history book of the building in Amory’s office and searching the boy’s room and under his bed. Upon figuring these two facts out, the group came up with their escape plan. Each member of the rebel group would go through the secret door, cross into the tunnels marked on the map then escape into the desert. Aaron volunteered to go first as he wanted to find Maria fast and get away from Sir Amory, who for some reason had started to slip more and more into madness ever since he exiled Maria from their group, he started hiding away from social interactions and became more aggressive to anyone who looked at him the wrong way and Aaron wanted to get away from that mad lion as fast as possible.  
However before he ran like hell away from that place, he and the others decided to space their escapes out as they feared a sudden escape of several members would cause suspicions to rise despite Aaron knowing full well that Amory would immediately catch on as he almost knew Aaron better than the back of his paw. Surprisingly the escape didn’t take too much time or energy, however as the German Shepherd was about to run into the desert, voices entered his bedroom which was a few feet above where he was standing and recognized one of them as Sir Amory’s. Terrified, the poor guy backed into the wall as there were no other hiding spots in plain sight and running out into the desert at that moment seemed way too risky since Amory would see his tracks when he looked out his window.  
He wasn’t sure about the others, but he was certain they were alright and hiding away or in his trashed room and Sir Amory as they had trashed the room to find the secret door and the right supplies before departing, they had planned to clean the place once they found the door however they didn’t have enough time as someone had detected Amory’s tracks. Aaron stayed planted in place as he waited for a signal that would point to him that the cult lion and his little group had left the room, however Amory went to his balcony and looked out into the desert which was the big reason he planted himself against the wall as Sir Amory would’ve spotted him or his tracks if he didn’t, even if he ran for his life.  
The second Amory exited the balcony, Aaron breathed a sigh of relief but he still stayed planted against the wall as he wasn’t certain if he could make a perfect getaway until the cult members were gone as there was a high or low possibility the others could hear his footsteps in the sand or something. Since the German Shepherd was on the bottom floor, the conversation that was happening in his room was a bit hard to hear….well some of the voices were as they were further from his balcony however he could hear Sir Amory’s voice from where he was standing. Aaron couldn’t see where Amory was but he knew he was standing near the balcony as he was the loudest out of everyone who were leaders of the cult.  
When the group finally left, Aaron finally ran the hell away and didn’t stop till he was miles away from that awful place. He only stopped when he was far out in the desert, he took a deep breath before collapsing to the ground, he was free and safe for now but he knew it wouldn’t last long, unless that mad lion was put to justice, he couldn’t feel safe or free and there was no way he was shaking those feelings off until Amory was either in jail or dead, he didn’t care if it was either one as both seemed more positive then the alternative. A sound of static came onto his radio that he had attached to his backpack, the dog jumped up and backed away from the thing, his ears pulled themselves back, another sound came on after a few seconds...static then a voice.  
“Aaron?” a soft female voice asked in a shaky but firm tone of voice, Aaron’s ears twitched and he carefully approached the radio, his once scared facial expression shifted into a confused frown. “Lela?” he asked softly, keeping his voice low as if speaking at a normal volume would attract the attention of a certain lion. “Aaron? Is that you?” Lela asked, her voice rising in volume like he couldn’t hear her on the other end. Aaron snapped out of his stare upon hearing his friend’s voice, confirming that she was alright. “Oh thank goodness, you’re alright!” the boy exclaimed happily, jumping up and down with excitement however he stopped after a few seconds to look around but once again, he found himself alone, thank god.  
“Don’t worry about me,” the lynx replied though her voice gave a little tremble before she winced in pain, her long cuts that she wore on her chest from Lena who had gone insane from being unable to kill Maria. Lela gave an uncomfortable shiver as she thought back to that moment, her ears pulled themselves back against her head. Thinking back to that moment over and over, she got more and more confused, the sudden change in the snow leopard’s behaviour didn’t make any sense in any way, shape or form. Thinking back on all the years she had ever known Lena, she always knew her as a rather calm and collected individual who would never allow her troubles get to her, even in the toughest situations, but Lela did notice something off about her in the last few days, she seemed to be getting more annoyed and angry even in less stressful situations, was she holding back her anger for so long till it snowballed out of control?  
That was the only theory she could come up with that made a lot of sense despite Nibiru not being a place where logic existed as there were no other explanations that made any sort of sense even a little. However she was unable to understand why this behaviour was building, Lena and many of the other members were totally alright with Sir Amory Aaron exiling Maria from their group after she stole Amory’s notes, so what on Nibiru was going on with them?  
Lela shook her head and attempted to brush those thoughts off, her body gave a terrified shiver, she honestly didn’t want to remember those moments, she needed to find Aaron as she needed his help in finding Maria as the white tiger was needed to stop Sir Amory Aaron. “Do you know where Maria is?” Lela asked Aaron, hoping to the Lord above that he did know, they needed to find her and fast, after all they didn’t know what the hell the evil lion was up to. “I did know,” came his short reply which made Lela’s hopeful face fall, her ears lowered in response as well.  
“You don’t?” she said, her tone becoming grim and hopeless. “Nope,” Aaron replied, his own tone becoming grim and hopeless as well. “Remember she was tossed into a random part of the desert when she was exiled, she could be anywhere in the desert!” Lela sighed, she already knew that little detail, in fact she had seen Maria much earlier in the day when she and Lena had ventured into the desert to kill her. However since she was lying on the ground of the cave, bleeding, she hadn’t been able to see where the white tiger went and by the time Lela got out of that cave, Maria was already gone but she didn’t follow her because she couldn’t see where she went and because she needed to care for her wounds first as she might bleed to death if she didn’t get bandaged up, thankfully she had a lot of supplies with her.  
However the lights at the top of the abandoned satellite were still going strong, burning a bright white. Lela looked up at the metal satellite she was sitting under, she had to look away from the crystals as they were still quite bright. The lynx had no clue in the world as to why the old satellite tower was on in the first place, this was a set of uncharted land that no one had the sanity to visit, but she knew it had something to do with Maria as she was the only one out there in this part of uncharted land. The question of who turned on the satellite was answered but the question of why turn on the old watch tower wasn’t however.  
“Can you tell me where you are?” Lela asked, wincing in pain from her fresh wounds. “Sure, I’m miles far from the Outback Cult’s building but I’m currently heading toward you, the noticeable landmark is the old satellite which is where you are, right?” Lela took a breath. “Yes but please hurry, something tells me we’re running out of time.” Aaron nodded, dug through his bags till he found his lantern, turned it on and placed his bags of survival supplies once more on his shoulders before heading off into the land, looking for an old broken satellite in the distance.


End file.
